The Life List

Heartbreak Hill. The Rift Valley. A vanful of sweaty teammates. These are just a few of the things you must experience in your lifetime to fully appreciate the history-and the quirky pleasures-of our sport. On your mark...

We all know the story by now, but it's worth repeating. On May 6, 1954, 25-year-old Roger Bannister became the first person to do the unthinkable: run a sub-four-minute mile. He did it in 3:59.4 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track with some 3,000 people cheering him on. You can watch the BBC newsreel of the event on the BBC's Web site. Better yet, re-create the moment at the legendary Iffley track yourself. The track is open to the public 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on weekends. (Coming into Oxford on Iffley Road, take a left at Jackdaw Lane into the stadium's "car park." For a modest 2.50, you can bring your stopwatch, do your four laps, and view Bannister memorabilia, like the original stopwatch and finishing post. Bask in the glory.

Pay Homage to Second

Just over a month after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute-mile mark, you'll remember that Australian John Landy did it, too. And while he lost the quest to be first, he set a world record of 3:57.9 that lasted for three years. Gentleman John Landy is a national hero in Australia where, in 1956, he logged one of the most incredible sports comebacks in the mile national championships. After fellow future Olympian Ron Clarke was tripped up, the favorite Landy jumped over him but then stopped to help Clarke up. "Sorry," Landy said, because his cleats tore into Clarke's shoulder. The two set off again and with the crowd chanting his name, Landy impossibly reeled in the rest of the field-they were 60 yards away-and won the race in 4 minutes, 4 seconds. The 22,000 Aussies in attendance went nuts. If you find yourself in Melbourne, pull your own John Landy miracle and train for the sub-four-mile (okay, maybe sub-six) where he did, at East Malvern's Central Park oval-now called the John Landy Oval. Take tram number five from Flinders Street Station (corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne). Get off at Stop 52 (corner of Wattletree Road, Malvern East). Cross Wattletree Road and you're at Central Park.

Run No Matter What

John Strumsky has run at least a mile every day for nearly 24 years. But it hasn't been easy, or even sane. "About five years ago, I had the flu and it turned into bronchial pneumonia," says Strumsky, president of the United States Running Streak Association. "I was seeing black spots, I was dizzy, and I started to wonder if someone was going to find me on the side of the road." To be an official streaker, you have to run at least one mile every day for a year. For $20 a year, or $250 for a lifetime, you get the quarterly Streak Registry newsletter. "Some people say it isn't healthy," says Strumsky, 66, an insurance salesman and Marine veteran. "But we have guys who are in their 70s who've run for 20, 30, almost 40 years. Some days you just don't want to run, but you do."

Summit Heartbreak Hill

It's possibly the most storied climb in running-the fourth and last of the so-called Newton Hills of the Boston Marathon. It rises only 100 feet and it's just a half mile long, but its position at mile 20.5 on the course has made it legendary. It was there, in 1936, that Boston icon Johnny Kelley passed race leader Ellison "Tarzan" Brown with a friendly pat. Brown regained the lead on the down side and never looked back. The next day Boston Globe writer Jerry Nason named the hill as the site of Kelley's heartbreak, and it stuck.

If qualifying for the Boston Marathon isn't a realistic option, you can still appreciate the challenge of Heartbreak by running the five-mile, four-hill stretch of hills up Commonwealth Avenue. Start at Newton Lower Falls on Route 16 and finish at Boston College. Heartbreak starts 3.5 miles in-when you've hit Grant street, you're on it. At Walnut Street, look to your left and salute the statue of Johnny Kelley, who finished the marathon 58 times and won it twice. Want company? The Heartbreak Hill Striders cover an out-and-back route every Sunday, and they even have a Gatorade brigade providing refreshments. Guests welcome.

Be Like Pre

It has been argued that the running craze in America began with an irrepressible University of Oregon runner. When Steve Prefontaine died in a 1975 car crash, at the tender age of 24, he owned seven American track records in the 2000-, 3000-, 5000-, and 10,000-meter distances, and the two-, three-, and six-mile distances-an unmatched record. Other than in the mile, Pre never lost a race at Oregon, and the fans at Hayward Field were known as Pre's People. Inspired? Bring out your inner Pre at the legendary Hayward Field. There's no charge, and you can run anytime except before meets and on weekday afternoons when the track team uses it. Show up on Thursday nights in the summer when the Oregon Track Club hosts its All-Comers Meets, and for $3 you might line up with an NCAA women's champion, a 75-year-old Eugene resident, and a 13-year-old Olympic aspirant. While you're in town, visit Pre's Rock, a memorial site just over a mile from the track to the east in Hendricks Park, and run on Pre's Trail, a 10-K wood-chip trail that winds along the Willamette River in Alton Baker Park.

Run in a Strange Place

"It's the best way to experience someplace foreign," says Randy Wayne White, veteran globetrotter and author of the Doc Ford mystery novels. "I've run in Bangkok, Perth, Cartagena, at the Mayan ruins in Tikal, Guatemala. You see the rhythm of a place in a way you'll never get by traveling in a car."

White has learned some lessons the hard way. After a late-night flight into Hanoi in 1978, he couldn't sleep, and set out on a run at the crack of dawn. "I was running by these lakes with people doing Tai Chi and I suddenly realized I had no idea where I was," says White, whose latest book, Dark Light, hit bookstores last year. "I couldn't remember my hotel name, I didn't speak the language, and I had no money. I ran around for hours before I finally found my hotel."

Run in extremis

"It's a pure experience," says extreme runner Brent Weigner. "It's just you, the elements, and your fellow competitors. I highly recommend it." Weigner, 57, a geography teacher from Cheyenne, Wyoming, has run on Antarctica six times, including the first South Pole Marathon, and at the North Pole three times. Weigner has also run 150 miles in the Gobi, Sahara, and Atacama deserts (racingtheplanet.com). Still not convinced it's for you? "It's incredibly empowering," insists Weigner, who has also run the Western States 100 and the Leadville Trail 100. "After you finish something like that you know you can handle anything life throws at you."

Ring in the New Year

There are plenty of ways to kick off the New Year in stride-har, har. The best known resolution run is the four-miler in New York's Central Park that starts when the clock strikes 12 (? nyrr.org). At the same time, the U.S. Marine Corps hosts a 5-K at Camp Lejeune's Onslow Beach, in North Carolina. Oorah! Meanwhile if you want to run in the first marathon of the year, head down to Kingwood, Texas (50statesmarathonclub.com). The most fun, however, is to be had in America's second city, where Universal Sole, a Chicagoland running store, and Goose Island Brewery get together for a 5-K run-and-party combo. Ninety bucks gets you in the race, plus a long-sleeve T-shirt to wear to the open-bar open-buffet New Year's Eve par-tay. "It's also smoke free," says Universal Sole owner, Paul Peters. "And it's one of the few places in Chicago where you can say that."

Coach

"All you have to do is contact your local Special Olympics office and say, 'I am a runner, and I want to work with an athlete,'" says Dave Lenox, vice president of sports and competition at the organization for intellectually disabled athletes. "It will be the most rewarding thing you ever do." Lenox speaks from experience. He's coached several athletes through triathlons and, in 1999, ran the Marine Corps Marathon while training with an intellectually disabled athlete whose PR is an impressive 3:03. The Special Olympics has 5-K, 10-K, half-, and marathon competitions. "But you can do community races or whatever you like," says Lenox. Feel good all around.

Stride Like a Gladiator

Ancient Rome's Circus Maximus (Circo Massimo) is the great-great-granddaddy of all sports stadiums. In its heyday, between 36 AD and 549 AD, it stood three stories high, with marble arches, gilded-gold adornments, and even skyboxes. There was seating for 150,000 with room for another 100,000 or so-bigger than the famed Coliseum. If you've seen Ben-Hur, you know what we're talking about. Today you, too, can be a savage Roman athlete-well, sort of. The ruins are open to the public, and the 600-meter oval track makes for one of the world's most unique runs. The Circo is located just south of the Coliseum and east of the Tiber on Via dei Cerchi and Via del Circo Massimo. Admission is free.

Run a Marathon in Every State

You don't have to be fast to hit this athletic mark, but you do need perseverance. At two marathons a year that means you'll finish in 2032. Luckily, there are two spirited groups out there to help you along. Both require that you log 10 official marathons before you join, and there's a $10 fee. "We aren't all fast runners," says Steve Boone, one of the founders of the 1,168-member 50 States club. "But we have a lot of fun." The good news: You'll have to run in Hawaii before it's all said and done. And if you're not up for running marathons for the next 25 years, you can do half the distance in half the states.

Run a Team Relay

The premise is simple: Get some friends, get a van, devise a cool name, and expect to run one to three legs over the course of a loooong day. The promise is: fun. The country's largest relay, with 1,000 teams of 12, is the Fred Meyer Hood to Coast, from the top of 11,249-foot Mount Hood to the Oregon town of Seaside. Other big-time baton-passers are the 200-mile Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire, and Illinois's 80-mile River to River Relay. You won't sleep much, but you won't mind.

Run the Oldest Footrace in the World

It's called the Red Hose Run, and it's a wee little race they've been running in Carnwath, Scotland, for, oh, just the last 485 years, lad. It's a record that, according to the Association of Road Racing Statisticians (? arrs.net), makes it the longest still-going road race in the world. Keeping with the old-style ways, there's no prize money, but the victor does get a pair of red woolen socks-same as he did five centuries ago. There's also no registration, or Web site, or phone number, but all comers are welcome to this charming rural burg about 30 miles from both Glasgow and Edinburgh. The race is held during Carnwath's Gala Week, in mid-June, so show up at the King George V football pitch ready to run. Previously the race has been 5-K and 3-K. This year it's just a mile, but it's a mile that will put you in running's history books.

Run in Costume

"It's hard not to have fun when people are laughing and cheering you on," says Chris Davis, a.k.a. Da Hulaman. Davis has run 18 Bay to Breakers runs in costume, and has placed in the costume contest six times-with such getups as Inspector Gadget, The Leaning Tower of Pizza, and the Hubble Repairman. His favorite costume run, however, is Run Wild-another San Francisco tradition. "People run in really elaborate getups in this one," says Davis, who shares tips and events at www.hulaman.com.

Run Like a Kenyan

If there's a Mecca for runners, it has to be the western rim of Kenya's Rift Valley, located about 200 miles northwest of Nairobi. Situated at 7,000 feet above sea level, the lush green hills of the Rift Valley are the nature-made training ground for the world's finest runners. Kenyans have won 14 of the last 16 Boston Marathons and 19 of the last 21 World Cross-Country Championships. You can attend an all-star Kenyan fantasy camp of sorts with Micato Safaris (in partnership with Runner's World), which visits Lornah Kiplagat's Iten High Altitude Training Center and Kipchoge Keino's nearby farm and training center, Kazi Mingi. The trip ends at the World Cross-Country Championships in Mombasa.

Kenya too far? In July and August, Camp Marafiki in Santa Fe, New Mexico, holds a fantasy camp, giving you the opportunity to eat, run, and train side-by-side with championship marathoners.